Report from Democrat edited at the start by secretary (8)
I believe the answer is:
describe
'report' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'democrat edited at the start by secretary' is the wordplay.
'at the start' says to take the initial letters.
'by secretary' becomes 'scribe' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
The initial letters of 'democrat edited' is 'de'.
'de'+'scribe'='DESCRIBE'
'from' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for describe that I've seen before include "Report in detail" , "Draw (figure); give account of" , "Paint in words" , "Portray - narrate" , "Represent in words" .)